LEOMINSTER -- It's not easy blending in when you're a seven-foot-one NBA legend -- especially at a CVS in Leominster.

I learned that Monday afternoon after popping into the Nelson Street pharmacy to buy toothpaste. As I made way through the store, I spotted one of tallest men I have ever seen.

He was African-American and dressed in dark jeans and a black T-shirt and baseball cap. I could only see the side of his face.

"Is that... Shaq?" I thought. "No. It couldn't be."

The man turned his head all the way around. We locked eyes. It was him.

Shaquille O'Neal -- NBA legend, one of the most famous athletes on the planet, one of the fifteen best basketball players ever -- was browsing the toy aisle at CVS.

My next thought: "Why is Shaquille O'Neal at a CVS in Leominster?"

Quick note: I'm a diehard NBA fan and have been following Shaq's career since his rookie season in 1992, when I was nine. I even saw him play his first road game against the Celtics at the old Boston Garden. So for me, this was an extremely exciting celebrity sighting. Also, did I mention I was at a CVS in Leominster?

"Shaq, how's it going?" I said. "I'm a huge fan."

He extended his enormous hand. I shook it.

"Can I get a photo?"

"Nah," he said, shifting his eyes around the store. "I'm going to a surprise birthday party. I don't want anyone to know."

He walked over to the pharmacy and got in line.

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I resisted the urge to yell, "Shaq, the IcyHot is that way!"

There were at least a dozen people shopping. Everyone seemed to be going about their business as normal, employees included.

Shaq turned his head to peer back at me. I think he was checking to see if I was secretly taking his photo. I wasn't. Suddenly, he waved me over.

"You can take a picture, but you have to promise that you won't share it with your buddies until after 6 p.m.," he said. "I don't want you to blow my cover.

This photo of Shaquille O'Neal at Chuck E. Cheese's in Leominster was circulated on social media on Monday.

"

"Sure," I said.

I snapped a selfie with my phone.

As I waited in line to pay for my toothpaste, Shaq piled-up toys at the cash register in the photo department. Giant water guns, stuffed animals. He was cleaning the place out.

I did a search for "Shaq" on Twitter after getting back to my car. A young woman named Riley Burns had posted a photo of her and Shaq by the checkout counter. Apparently she wasn't subject to the 6 p.m. embargo.

I couldn't wait to share my story with the newsroom. My colleagues were impressed. And confused. What was Shaq doing there? It was very mysterious.

"I've always wondered when you see a celebrity in a place like that if you'd know for sure it was them," said Ashley Green, a staff photographer.

I've wondered the same thing, but when the celebrity is seven-feet-tall, you know. It's not like I bumped into a guy who looked like Tom Cruise.

I called CVS to ask if any employees could shed light on Shaq's visit. A woman named Jennifer politely explained that corporate policy forbid her from speaking to the media. But before hanging up, she revealed that she had asked Shaq how tall he was, without even knowing who she was talking to.

"He said he was seven-foot-four," said Jennifer.

I guess all guys lie about their height.

Later in the day, more local Shaq sightings began appearing on Twitter and Facebook. He was seen with a woman at a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's in Leominster. That explained the toys.

A young woman named Riley Burns tweeted this photo of her and Shaquille O'Neal inside Leominster's CVS Pharmacy on Nelson Street Monday afternoon. (TWITTER/rileyburns_)

Shaq's companion was identified on social media as Latricia Rolle, a Gardner native who graduated from Worcester Academy in 2006 with a full basketball scholarship to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. After suffering a career-ending knee injury her junior year, Eckerd was chosen from a nationwide casting call to pose in an unretouched-photo advertising campaign put on by Make Up Forever.

Shaq reportedly met her when she worked as a hostess at Ceviche Tapas Bar in Tampa, Fla.

Just last month the couple was photographed canoodling at a nightclub in Paris. Days later, they were seen sitting courtside at Wimbledon.

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